The Accelerated Learning Program will identify the neural basis of expert performance by integration of behavioral data with neurophysiological measures to track the progression of novices on the training path to expertise. Ultimately, this research will provide the necessary foundation for how to optimize task qualities and learning environments and to accelerate the novice-to-expert progression.
Today's warfighter is required to master a large number of diverse skills spanning the range of cognitive and motor domains in increasingly rapid timeframes. Historically, measures of learning on key skills in the military environment have relied on qualitative and subjective assessments, often post-hoc, with little opportunity to redirect a learning experience mid-course. Recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience, as well as advances in modeling and analysis techniques, have laid the foundation for neuroscience-based noninvasive strategies with the potential to dramatically accelerate the transition from novice to expert in key military tasks. The Accelerated Learning Program will develop quantitative and integrative neuroscience-based approaches for measuring, tracking, and accelerating skill acquisition and learning while producing a twofold increase in progression in an individual's progress through stages of task learning.
This program will develop reliable and quantitative methods for tracking task progression based on noninvasive measures of brain activity. These may include, but are not limited to, neurophysiologically driven training regimens, neurally optimized stimuli, and stimulatory/modulatory interventions. Complementary components that will further attainment of this goal include the development of neurally based techniques for maintenance of acquired skills, prediction of skill acquisition based on real-time neural activity, preferential brain network activation, and strategies for understanding the relationship between cognition and emotion in the domain of skill learning.
Today's warfighter is required to master a large number of diverse skills spanning the range of cognitive and motor domains in increasingly rapid timeframes. Historically, measures of learning on key skills in the military environment have relied on qualitative and subjective assessments, often post-hoc, with little opportunity to redirect a learning experience mid-course. Recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience, as well as advances in modeling and analysis techniques, have laid the foundation for neuroscience-based noninvasive strategies with the potential to dramatically accelerate the transition from novice to expert in key military tasks. The Accelerated Learning Program will develop quantitative and integrative neuroscience-based approaches for measuring, tracking, and accelerating skill acquisition and learning while producing a twofold increase in progression in an individual's progress through stages of task learning.
This program will develop reliable and quantitative methods for tracking task progression based on noninvasive measures of brain activity. These may include, but are not limited to, neurophysiologically driven training regimens, neurally optimized stimuli, and stimulatory/modulatory interventions. Complementary components that will further attainment of this goal include the development of neurally based techniques for maintenance of acquired skills, prediction of skill acquisition based on real-time neural activity, preferential brain network activation, and strategies for understanding the relationship between cognition and emotion in the domain of skill learning.